Gender in Arabic:

In Arabic, all nouns are either masculine or feminine with the sign of the later being as follows:

Taa Marboota (ة): All nouns with a ة at the end are always feminine e.g. سيَّارَةٌ

Ali Maqsoorah (الف مقصورة (ى)) All nouns with an Alif Maqsoorah are also feminine e.g. مُستَشفى (Mustashfa meaning hospital). Note that there are no two dots under the "Yaa". It is a classical beginner error to pronounce this word as "Mustashfi" rather than "Mustashfa" so watch for the two dots!

Ali Mamdooda (الف ممدودة (ـاء)) All nouns with an Alif Mamdooda are also feminine e.g. أَذْكِياءُ (Adhkiya'u meaning those men who are intelligent).

Inherently Feminine: Some nouns are inherently feminine in Arabic e.g. شَمسٌ(Shamsun meaning Sun). These will be pointed out as the course continues

مُبْتَدَأ (Mubtada) & خَبَر(Khabar) will both match in case ending i.e. they will be Marfoo

مُبْتَدَأ (Mubtada) & خَبَر (Khabar) will both match in gender i.e. if the first word is masculine, the second one will also be masculine and vice versa

مُبْتَدَأ (Mubtada) & خَبَر (Khabar) will both match in Plurality i.e. if the first word is singular, the second one will also be singular and if the first word is feminine then second word will also be feminine

So lets recap the ONLY AREA where the two words will NOT match in a simple nominal sentence:

مُبْتَدَأ (Mubtada) is always definite & خَبَر (Khabar) will usually be indefinite.

We will return to this concept in the future lessons.

What is هَـٰذَا/هَـٰذِهِ?

Recall from the previous lesson that Arabic has three parts of speech and they are as follows:

1اسم (Ism or Noun): This category is defined as those words that impart a single meaning on their own and do not afford a tense e.g. "Masjidun" i.e. you know what this word means and it has no association with time. Pronouns are also included in this category.

2حرف (Harf or particle): This category is defined as those words that do not impart a meaning on their own e.g. "Waa" i.e. you would not know what "Waa" means on its own unless and until you join some words to the right and left of it.

3فعل (Fi'l or verb): This category is defined as those words that impart a single meaning on their own and afford a tense e.g. "Abada (He worshipped)" i.e. you know that this refers to the action of worshipping which occurred in the past

هَـٰذَاis the masculine demonstrative pronoun for pointing to near objects and it is always definite.

هَـٰذِهِis the feminine demonstrative pronoun for pointing to near objects and it is always definite.

The Arabic term for "demonstrative pronoun for pointing to near objects" is:

أَسْمُ الْأِشَارَةِ لِلْقَرِيب

How to construct a sentence using هَـٰذَا/هَـٰذِهِ?

In order to construct a simple nominal sentence you just have to insert a second indefinite word after the pronoun and it becomes a perfectly good sentence. The second word of the sentence has to follow three rules:

1 It has to be Marfoo: The default state of a word is Nominative case or the State of Rafa or Marfoo and the last letter of the word will carry a Tanween (Dammatain) or in case of a definite word a single Damma = كتابٌ

2 It has to match the gender of the first word

3 It has to be indefinite.

Using هَـٰذَا

e.g. to say “This is a Masjid” it is:

هَـٰذَا مَسْجِدٌ

The analysis of this sentence is as follows:

1هَـٰذَا Is a masculine demonstrative pronoun for near objects

2مَسْجِدٌ Is Khabar therefore it is:

aMarfoo

bIndefinite

cMasculine because it has to match the Gender of the first word (i.e. the pronoun)

3The Arabic setence literally means:

"This a Masjid"

4The English word “is” or the copula doesn’t exist in Arabic so it is manually inserted making the accurate translation to be:

"This is a Masjid"

Using هَـٰذِهِ

To say “This is a Girl” it is:

هَـٰذِهِ بنْتٌ

The analysis of this sentence is as follows:

1هَـٰذِهِ Is a feminine demonstrative pronoun for near objects

2بنْتٌ Is Khabar therefore it is:

aMarfoo

bIndefinite

cFeminine because it has to match the Gender of the first word (i.e. the pronoun)

3The Arabic setence literally means:

"This a Girl"

4The English word “is” or the copula doesn’t exist in Arabic so it is manually inserted making the accurate translation to be:

"This is a Girl"

Exercise:

Make five (5) sentences usingهَـٰذَاas the first first word and then select any five masculine words as the second word (of the sentence) from the vocbulary table.

أَسْمُ الْأِشَارَةِ لِلْقَرِيب

Part 2

How to turn a sentence using هَـٰذَا/هَـٰذِهِ into a question?

This is done by inserting a particle of interrogation before the nominal sentence. The particle of interrogation is أَ and its Arabic term is:

مَا

مَنْ

Exercise:

Can you first ask "What/Who" in Arabic and then answer your questions by using vocabulary from the Lesson?

Student work:

Concepts of Lesson 1 have been introduced, students should now be able to do the work using the vocabulary table given and complete the Lesson. Remember that your job is not to merely translate but analyse, break down the sentence and then translate.